Linmerr
Linmerr, the Free City of Alchemistry Libertarian/Anarchy Where dreams come alive. A vibrant city with diverse people and cultures. Beauty comes in freedom. Architecture The city of Linmerr was originally structurally organized. Nine Grand Columns define the general shape of the massive city, each housing hundreds of thousands, if not millions if you include squatters, the homeless, or general vagabonds. There are also massive platforms that connect the Grand Columns every 15 floors, each forming what the locals call a Stage. Stages 0-10 tends to be for the poor, where as Stage 10-15 and the above University are where the elite live Note: That brings up to at least the 225th floor. By comparison, the Burj Khalifa is 167 stories, for comparisons. Floors are reset at every Stage, further enforcing a very strong social “ladder,” so to speak, for the inhabitants of the city [OOC Note: Stage 5, Floor 3, for example, is the 78th floor). Floors 1 and 2 (sometimes combined to form a more “open” area) of each Stage is where many of the markets are located, and tend to be very busy areas at all times of the day. The rest of the floors are a combination of businesses and government-sponsored residences. The Grand Columns are enormous squares, each about 9 city blocks in diameter, and house most of the utilities and community areas, as well as numerous official offices that are needed to maintain some semblance of order in the city. Each Grand Column has a number of rocket elevators on each side, ranging from the tiny parcel tubes, to the smaller personal ones, to the Grand Freight Elevators, of which there is one on each face. Each spews out large clouds of a black smoke that the government assures is clean, though few academics studies would be willing to support that. Plumbing and Generators are also housed in the heart of each Grand Column, around the 7th or 8th floors. Specialized markets may find themselves hidden away in the many hallways and mini-atriums, if one is looking for specific materials or technologies. Where the city begins to get messier is with the Supporting and Tertiary Columns. As people began to flood into the city after the Third Grand War, which left most of the non-urbanized areas uninhabitable, the government in Linmerr feared more columns were needed to support the ever increasing populations. The Supporting Columns (or colloquially known as Secondaries, or Seckies), are almost randomly interspersed throughout the city, supporting the Stages where the structural integrity seemed suspect. Due to, well, rational fears from the governing elite, they brute-forced the calculations and made more than was necessary at the time, granting the almost chaotic placement of the secondary columns. Many of these housed the immigrant families, as well as many of the more notorious aspects of Linmerr. Many of the Seckies are run by mobs, known as Quads in the local lingo. Quads tend to only stick to a stage of a Seckie, unless they are one of the larger ones. The Anisa family, for example, controls stages 3-6 of four Seckies near the Grand Column 6. Not all of the Quads are actually crime syndicates, however. Many are groups of families who banded together in order for protection or garnering favors from the law enforcement to turn a blind eye from “technically illegal” pursuits (like hawking or prostitution). The Tertiary Columns, on the other hand, vary substantially in quality. Tertiary towers (or Terts) offer little support in the whole grand scheme of things, and used to house the ever increasing number of inhabitants. Though Terts can be complete shanty towns with questionable durability, some Terts in the upper stages are luxurious apartments with beautiful marble floors and gold-plated sinks. Their only main distinction as Terts is that they were not built for support, and do not necessarily originate from the ground floor. On top of Stage 15, however, is the University. The University is both the academic capital and the governing body of Linmerr. Stage 15, known as the Grand Campus, is a beautiful marvel, though not necessarily in the most traditional way. The buildings, though old, are intensely decorated with subtle details, from the trigilyphs to the wall paintings. One needs special permits to even ascend to the Grand Campus, though admittedly the general populace will find little need to. As is, the government does little in actuality other than taxation for upkeep for the city (of which is a very small percentage). The Board of Directors spend a vast majority of their time in their work, devising more methods of Alchemical Thaum and positing philosophical questions to their peers. The air up here is much cleaner than that of below, with the strong wind currents blowing away what little pollution does make it up. The basic architecture of Linmerr suggests a strong class based society, and it shows. That is not to say it isn’t a city of opportunity. Many of the upper level inhabitants were once Tert Shantytown dwellers, and though many would not want to admit it, moving up and down the ladder is as simple as taking the stairs. History The People The Government Conspiracies